


Keep Breathing

by hxnterrrr



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Blood and Gore, Drug Use, Everyone Is Gay, Fluff, Gonna Hit You Where It Hurts uwu, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Other, Sexual Content, Straights Don’t Exist
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-22 23:10:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16607189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hxnterrrr/pseuds/hxnterrrr
Summary: It was sudden, like how you would imagine it to be.There were rumours of course, a little chatter here and there about the end of the world. But nobody ever thought that it would happen.Until one day, it did.And it didn't come in a way that you'd assume. There was no greater being from above who casted down on the wicked and protected his followers. There was no sudden explosion, no atomic bomb. No mountain rumbled, no ground cracked, no water washed over.It was only man, ignorance, and the abuse of power.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> ... lmfaooo. ok OKAY i’m re-uploading this BECAUSE i got nostalgic and in my feels and decided to bring this back up (and continue it). 
> 
> YES. i have written more than just one chapter this time around so y’all will be getting more.. uhh.. enjoy

Darkness. Something that could only be seen in this moment for miles and miles. No movement, no other human, and no other source of energy. Nothing was heard. Nothing.

That was, until there was a muffled noise, one in which had no beginning or end. An echo of a sound.  
And then there was a boy, attempting to figure out what exactly it was he was hearing. It took a while until the noise became decipherable, until it became clear. A voice, one word being said over and over.

_Lance_.

Then came the bump. A nudge in the darkness that stirred enough of a frequency to have the boy come to. Where was he?

Oh, right, his bed.

Not his bed.

_Sticky_ _Fingers_ was playing in the back. Not a way he wanted to wake up.

Yes, this was his bed. He was remembering now. Not much of a dream, darkness.

Lance shot a hand out, sliding his fingers across cheap fabric as he lifted his head. A groan slipped past his parted lips. And then, he heard that voice again.

"Yeah, yeah," Lance barely muttered, one eye cracking open enough to have light flood through. His vision was barely there before it was blocked again by that _voice_. "Hunk, it's too early—"

"It's midday," Hunk retorted, hands on his hips as he squinted down at his friend. He studied the way Lance's curls stuck to his temples, how his freckled shoulders pushed up as he rose into a sitting position. And then he appeared to be hit with a smell. "Did you seriously pass out after you lit up?"

Lance stretched enough to allow a soft yawn, sleep-addled eyes barely open enough to look at Hunk. He lifted a hand, spreading lithe fingers out before pinching the air. "This much."

"This much, what?"

"This much sleep... Weed," Lance paused, his eyes sliding shut again before opening wide and fixing back on Hunk. "Don't you have class?"

Instead of an immediate reply, Hunk threw Lance's shirt directly at his face and walked past his bed to grab the nearest bottle of spray he could find.

"Class is cancelled, I've got a couple hours to kill before my next one," he said, uncapping a bottle and spraying around the dorm mercilessly.

Lance fell into a coughing fit, scowling as he climbed out of bed and toward his dresser. He rummaged around an open drawer before picking out his inhaler and bringing it to his mouth. "At least warn me next time," he took an artificial puff, letting it seep into his lungs before breathing out. After, he fumbled with getting a shirt on quickly, and then turned to meet a hard stare from Hunk.

Lance knew exactly what that stare was directed at, and he was quick to toss his inhaler in the air and catch it again like no big deal. "I'm careful with the dosage. Besides, it's medicinal... That, and I haven't touched weed in like," he'd lost count. "A very long time."

"Four months. Since your last attack. Which, I would like to remind you, sent you to the hospital—"

"I googled! Shit's fine if I'm careful, and like...vape it."

Hunk folded his arms across his chest and raised a brow. " _Did_ you vape?"

"Well. No—"

Hunk lifted a hand, silencing him. He turned then after and began searching the small room, looking around for a hidden stash. Soon enough, he found the little sandwich bag packed with the evidence, picking it up and wiggled it between his fingertips. "I'm taking this," he said and stuffed it in the inner pocket of his jacket. "Where'd you even get it?"

Lance huffed begrudgingly, shutting his eyes and pressing his thumb between his brows pensively. "Short hair. Glasses. Always tells that ginger to fuck off—"

"Pidge?"

Lance's eyes shot open, and he made an immediate fingergun. "Pidge!"

That pulled a scoff from Hunk. He moved past Lance to open the window behind him to bring in the breeze of fresh air. "How do you even know that it's medicinal?" He asked. He served a flick to the back of Lance's head as he walked past him again.

Lance pouted as he brought a hand up to rub his head. A pause followed his silence, a guilty one longer than the last, one that caused Hunk to speak again.

"So you don't kn—"

"It's Pidge," Lance said and lowered his hand, eyes flicking up to his friend's face. "They wouldn't fuck with that."

"Ten seconds ago you forgot their name."

Hunk was over talking about it, Lance could tell.

Instead of pursuing the conversation, Hunk inhaled a deep breath and let it out just as quickly, wiping a finger against the side of his mouth. "You going down to the range?"

"And miss an opportunity to get more information on Kogane? Never!"

Like quicksilver, Lance brightened up, and his mind completely dissolved the fact that Hunk had just been scolding him for not being as careful as he should. He gave a thumbs up and beamed. Of course he was going down to the range!

Moving to grab his shoes, Lance did a quick breath check before grabbing a pack of gum and slipping it in the back pocket of his jeans.

Hunk lingered by the door in the meanwhile. "Well, have fun. Don't make a fool of yourself, yeah? You do that...a lot. Especially in front of people you're trying to impress."

By the time Hunk had finished speaking, Lance was slipping his second shoe on, stumbling forward. He steadied himself with a heavy breath. "It's totally chill! I'm going to speak to one of the guys down there, anyway. Fuck knows where Keith is at." A grin in Hunk's direction, and Lance was unwrapping two sheets of gum, popping both into his mouth to chew.

Hunk reached out and pressed his thumb in the corner of Lance's eye, sweeping away the crust that'd formed from sleep. Lance did a rapid blink and scoffed at his friend's babying before slipping on a sweater. He gave Hunk's chest a pat.

"Go see Shay. Get rowdy, or whatever it is y'guys do in your spare time," Lance let out a small laugh at the way Hunk's face screwed up at his phrasing. "Fuck, I don't care. Just go see her!"

Soon enough, he was squeezing past him and ambling out into the hall. Lance threw a final salute back as he left, chewing rapidly on the gum in his mouth as his mind narrowed down to one significant thing.

Get more information on Keith Kogane.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whew.. tysm for the kudos!! AND the bookmark? hopefully i provide something decent... ONWARDS TO THE NEXT CHAPTER!

Failed his mission. Or, at least Lance got distracted along the way before even  _starting_ his mission.  
He had stopped to go back to his dorm and grab a backpack, stuffed his inhaler into the front pocket with his keys, phone, and wallet.

And then he went his Uncle's, to raid the man's fridge, using the excuse that he had popped in to say 'hey'. Lance was also there to pick up a few of his guns, in which were stashed away in his Uncle's safe in the back of his wardrobe; couldn't exactly go down to the range without them.  
He was, after all, going down to practice; talking about Keith was just an added bonus.  
It was something that he did often— since he was younger, practised shooting.

And of course it was all legal; Lance wasn't  _exactly_  one who didn't play by the rules. Especially when it came to more extreme situations, because sure, he knew how easy it was to buy a gun or to take a license. However, Lance wasn't ready to be confronted by authority. Even if that day never came.

'Better safe than sorry!' Is what he would always say.

"You coming down with me today?" Lance asked, cases in hand as he looked over to his Uncle. The elder man shook his head, mumbled something about being called in for work.  
"They've been testing things out in the labs, said I have to go down." Lance nodded, eyes trailing towards the front door.

"Well, I'll see you around later on, then." And with that, and a bright smile, Lance was out once again; throwing his possessions into his car and hopping in.  
Even after that, Lance had still managed to prolong his first desire a little while longer, all because he wanted to grab  _more_ food.  
So, by the time he had arrived at the range, majority of people had left to finish off their days.

However there was Lance, half a sandwich slice slotted between his teeth as he pulled out one of his cases from the back seat of his car. And soon enough, after the sandwich was gone, he was greeted by the remaining few, taking one of the packs of earplugs and ripping it open. 

To only have one of the plugs drop on the floor. 

"Shit," Lance didn’t bother to pick it up. He instead grabbed another pack and opened it with his teeth; being careful enough so that neither fell out this time. After he shoved them into his ears, slid his headphones on and scrolled through one of his many playlists, Lance set up to start aiming at the targets displayed out before him on the field. 

Although, as per usual, Lance was sidetracked once again from asking anybody about Keith; too busy focused on the perfect shot. 

Which he got on more accounts than one, a smugness growing on his visage each time he'd hear someone groan out a complaint.

Lance soon sat back with a satisfied sigh, and pushed himself to stand before he released a casing. He licked over his lower lip, and removed his headphones. Slipping the safety glasses up to rest on the crown of his head, Lance pointed out towards his freshly hit target.

“You see that?” He asked out loud, not entirely directed to anybody in particular. “Reckon Kogane would be able to shoot that good?” 

And there it was, the beginning of Lance’s mission. Finally. 

After hours of prolonging the entire thing, Lance had started to talk about the one and only Keith Kogane.

His question only received a laugh in response. 

“You really are obsessed with him, aren’t you?” 

“What, like you are with Shiro?” Lance shot back, giving the young adult a smirk as he turned his head to look at him. He received a dark stare, the boy in question shaking his head and looking away.

“You’re an ass sometimes.”

“You’re not denying it.” Lance quipped, smirk only growing as he shifted completely to face the other. 

“There’s a difference between liking somebody and being obsessive over somebody.” The other responds, and rubbed at his eyes. “And besides, it’s not like there’s a chance we’re going to end up together.” 

Lance snorted, and made his way over to stand by the others side. “Yeah, but.. You two fucked around before he started dating Adam, right? So...” Lance trailed off, slowly raising a shoulder as he shrugged. “That was a chance, Matt.” 

“No, that was a ‘let’s keep this a secret because I don’t actually have feelings for you, but I’m going to ask for sex anyway and lead you on, to only break things off when I get together with the guy I was getting into at the same time’ situation.”

Lance fell silent for a moment, eyes trailing off elsewhere. He sucked in a breath and scratched at his cheek, not exactly sure how to comfort the other.

“Well... At least we know he’s an asshole!”

A grunt was heard, and Matt brought a hand up to rub at his face as a soft groan followed. 

“The worst part of it all is that I liked Adam, too. Imagine all us three.. Happy and together.” Matt exhaled, and lowered a hand. “I refused to see the signs.”  

“Usually people do,” Lance yawned out, not even bothering to cover his mouth. “I mean, Takashi acts like he’s fucking pristine. Keith ain’t much different, he just thinks he’s hot shit.”

Matt rose a brow.

“Seems we’re both into assholes, then?” Lance decided it was best to not respond to his friend’s question, and instead brought a hand up to fiddle at his glasses. He cleared his throat.

Yeah, seems they were.

“Hey...” He started, deciding to change the topic all together. “You’re like, Pidge’s brother right?” Lance prodded at his cheek once more, emitting a small cough before he looked back over to Matt; gaze hopeful.

“Reckon y’could hook me up with some more weed?”

Matt stared back at Lance dumbfoundedly, and allowed the silence to blanket over them for an excruciating amount of time. For Lance, at least.

“Un-fucking-believable,” He started, a small laugh being pushed through his nose. Matt shook his head. “I don’t get into what they do, and besides, I thought you had asthma?”

“Why does that even matter!” Lance grumbled, flitting his gaze elsewhere. He huffed shortly after, letting his gaze travel across his gun. “Hunk took my stash and thinks I’m not like, responsible or wh—“

A noise elicited, like a gurgled screech followed by a rustle in the tree above. Lance immediately spun around, heart racing. He stood still, a whispered, "what the fuck was that?" coming from behind.

Slowly taking another step forward, finger on his trigger, Lance waited. 

Another piercing cry came from the dense greenery, and a figure leaped out in front of Lance. He shrieked and stumbled back, as his eyes met another's; A friend's. 

An asshole's. 

Immediate relief was only consumed by annoyance, and Lance treaded forward again.

"Shit— What the hell, man?" He lowered his sniper, agitation evident on his face. "You know fuckin' better than to mess around here! I coulda shot your ass!" There's a shove, one in which Lance is pushed the other, and gave him the finger. 

“Hey, Rolo! Where’s that girl you’ve been chatting up recently?” Matt piped up. He set his headphones on the table, and took a stride closer to the two.

Rolo dusted off his jeans with an evil simper gave Lance a gentle hip bump, before his eyes drifted in Matt’s direction; head angled to the side. 

“Nyma? She was hanging out with Shay last time I touched base. Apparently, coming here and being around Lance was too much for her to handle.” Rolo flicked his eyes towards Lance with a cocked brow. “You know, after that night.” 

“Oh, you mean the night where we all got completely drunk and had sex?” Lance piped up, a frown forming on his face. “And then she _stole_  fifty bucks from me _and_ my favourite shirt!”

“Yeah,” Rolo laughed out, pushed a hand through his hair and smirked. “Exactly.”

He looked back down at Lance then, and cooed softly as he took the others chin between his thumb and forefinger. “Hey, don’t worry, yeah? You’re still the best I’ve had.” It was then that Rolo placed a gentle kiss to Lance’s lips, his thumb lightly stroking over them in its wake. 

Well, that was an odd reassurance.

Although, despite the situation at hand, Lance became engrossed in something other than Keith for what seemed like the millionth time. His attention was back on Matt, and brows slowly smoothed out as he took in the others features. 

He’d often wondered how the other managed to nab that scar on his cheek, but of course, Lance always forgot to ask. He was conflicted, though, because whenever he  _did_ remember, Lance deemed it a little too invasive. But then again, with a burn scar like the one on his back, he never thought twice about— 

“Anyways,” Lance pulled himself out of his thoughts, moved towards the small bench and began to disassemble his gun. “Why don’t you just.. I don’t know– like,  _ask_  Shiro and Adam if they’d be down for you  _all_  to be together?” He suggested, taking a look at Matt once again. 

“That could work, dude. You jus’ gotta ask.” Which was ironic, that advice coming from Lance. “I did hear that Adam actually found you cu–“

Again, another distraction. This was different, though, because Lance _felt_  his heart stop. Felt his breath catch in his throat as he gawked in complete awe, confusion, and surprise. 

“... Keith?” 

Matt snapped his head up at that name. His eyes landed on Lance, saw the disbelief on his features, and veered them towards what had caused the other such a fright. Not a ghost, but a familiar mess of dark hair pulled a chuckle from Matt’s throat.

“Imagine that..” 

Lance hadn’t registered what Matt said, his focus too fixed on the fact that Keith, of all people, was there. At the range. The same time he was. 

_Shit_. 

“Fuck,” That too. Lance shut his case, a loud  _click_ indicating it had securely closed, and began to walk with haste. Walking towards Keith. 

He didn’t exactly have a plan in mind once he got there, either. All he knew was that he was definitely acting on impulse. He always acted on impulse when it came to Keith Kogane. And by the time he had gotten to Keith, Lance had already started to run his mouth. 

“What brings you here?” He asked, albeit a slight tone of agitation in his voice. Not that Lance was agitated– he just wasn’t the best at showing off certain emotions. Not that Keith was any better. 

And when dark eyes fell onto Lance, a small scowl formed. “Not you, that’s for sure.” 

Ouch. Lance could admit that stung. A lot. Sure, he and Keith didn’t exactly talk all that much, or ... Interacted. They were more like two people who shared the same friend group, but wouldn’t necessarily hang out alone together. Which was something Lance definitely wanted, but it wasn’t as if he was making any attempt at doing so. 

One big mess, really. 

Lance frowned, quickly removing the bright yellow glasses from off his head in favour of holding them in his free hand, and did his absolute best to not stare at the other.

”First of all, rude. And dos,” He lifted the same hand, and rose two fingers. “You never come here. I would know, I’m here all the time. And I would  _definitely_  know if you were here, because I—“ Eesh.. Don’t finish that sentence, Lance.

Keith arched a brow in response, arms folding over his chest as he pursed his lips. He decided against commenting on it, however, having realised that he didn’t want to know; nor did he care.

”Whatever,” He started, violet eyes veering off and past Lance as he scouted the area around them. “I’m looking for Matthew, Shiro told me he was here.”

”And what does Shiro want with Matt?” Lance was an odd character. Sure, he had just told Matt to go for the two dude’s of his dreams, and yet here he was getting defensive that Shiro wanted him. Keith flicked his eyes back to Lance. 

“That would imply it’s any of your business.” 

Double ouch. Keith’s just hitting him hard today, isn’t he? Lance huffed out. 

“Y’know.. You really don’t have to be such an a—“ The words were quickly knocked out of Lance when he felt a blow to his shoulder, which sent him forward and directly into Keith. And, he’d totally be okay with that, if it wasn’t for the fact that a sudden panic rose around them. 

Lance drew back, and looked behind him as the commotion got louder. Then came the gun shots. 

“What the hell...” Lance trailed off when Matt rushed up to them, the look on his face evident that he was in the dark as much they were. And usually, it was first instinct to run the opposite direction when danger spread, however Lance felt himself drawing near. As others ran past, pushing to slip away, Lance was weaving through.

”Lance—” Keith called out. Not Keith.. Matt. Not Matt, either; he wasn’t paying all that much attention. “Lance!”

And maybe he shouldn’t have been curious, maybe he should have turned on his heel and ran like the rest. But he didn’t, and he was there now. 

“Lance.”

Watching.

” _Lance_!”

Listening.

“ _LANCE_!”

Oh god, the blood.  _There’s so much blood._


End file.
